Suicide bomber kills five in Peshwar near a security checkpoint

PESHAWAR - On the Christmas eve, a suicide bomber, wearing a vest packed with steel pellets attacked Peshawar on Thursday, left five people killed and many others injured.

The incident occurred at a security checkpoint in one of Peshawar’s busiest areas in an army cantonment outside a government office and a church where Christian minority were preparing to celebrate Christmas.

Five people were killed, including a policeman and a woman, with 14 wounded, but said the bomber’s target was not immediately clear, praising police for ‘intercepting’ the bomber at the checkpoint, a Dawn report quoted officials as saying.

The explosion also damaged private vehicles nearby.

‘There were several targets. It could have been a Pakistan International Airlines building or a Shia mosque. There are also several shopping malls in this area,’ said Sahibzada Mohammad Anis, the top city administration official.

Witnesses to the incident said that there was a deafening voice by the explosion. One of them was Alam Khan, who back was pierced with shrapnel in the incident.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has condemned the attack.

Such terrorist acts cannot weaken the government’s resolve to fight the menace of terrorism till its complete elimination,’ said an official statement from Gilani’s office.

Pakistan Government, meanwhile, has stepped up security during the holy Muslim month of Muharram, ahead of the Shia mourning period of Ashura, and one of Peshawar’s largest Shia mosques was also close to the bomb-site. (ANI)